05:01 PM EDT, 07/08/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Wall Street's major equity indexes mostly fell Tuesday as President Donald Trump announced plans to impose a 50% tariff rate on copper imports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4% to 44,240.8, while the S&P 500 lost 0.1% to 6,225.5. The Nasdaq Composite was largely flat at 20,418.5. Among sectors, consumer staples and utilities led decliners, while energy saw the biggest gain.

Trump said Tuesday he will set a 50% charge on copper imports, and that he would announce "very high" tariffs on pharmaceutical products, CNBC reported.

"Today, we're doing copper," Trump reportedly said during a Cabinet meeting. "I believe the tariff on copper, we're going to make it 50%."

Copper futures surged 9.3% in Tuesday late-afternoon trade.

Trump sent letters to 14 nations on Monday, including Japan, South Africa, Malaysia and Thailand, informing them of their new reciprocal tariff rates that are scheduled to come into effect on Aug. 1, the White House said in a statement.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump said he will send letters to additional US trading partners. "No extensions will be granted" beyond Aug. 1, he wrote on Truth Social.

"With many of the reciprocal tariff rates announced in recent days appearing to be unchanged relative to April 2nd, trade uncertainty is likely to remain elevated through the new August 1st deadline," TD Economics said in a note.

US Treasury yields were mixed, with the 10-year rate rising 2.3 basis points to 4.41% while the two-year rate was little changed at 3.91%.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the minutes of its June monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. Last month, policymakers held rates steady for the fourth consecutive meeting.

In other economic news, US small business optimism held largely intact in June, with taxes remaining owners' biggest concern ahead of the passage of Trump's tax and spending bill, a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business showed Tuesday.

"With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act now signed into law, concerns related to tariffs are likely to return as a top-of-mind concern for small businesses," Andrew Foran, economist at TD Economics, said in a note.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.5% at $68.30 a barrel.

In company news, TopBuild ( BLD ) shares rose 3.8% after the company said it agreed to acquire Progressive Roofing in an $810-million cash deal that will expand the insulation products distributor's portfolio to include commercial roofing services.

Tesla (TSLA) share were 1.3% higher following Monday's nearly 7% slump. The electric vehicle maker's board must set parameters to rein in Chief Executive Elon Musk's political ambitions after the tech billionaire disclosed plans to form a new political party, Wedbush Securities said in a Tuesday note.

The brokerage recommended the Tesla board to take certain steps, including designing a new pay package for Musk that specifies the amount of time he needs to spend on Tesla operations, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said.

Boeing ( BA ) on Tuesday reported annual and sequential gains in both deliveries and orders for the second quarter.

Gold was down 0.9% at $3,312.2 per troy ounce, while silver was nearly flat at $36.91 per ounce.